Is unique.
No other LA has put together such a package as this with just one company. It is unprecedented so it begs the question why has Moira Swann chosen to do it this way?
No other LA has put together such a package as this with just one company. It is unprecedented so it begs the question why has Moira Swann chosen to do it this way?
Well no doubt she will say it is to 'ensure the Cumbrian taxpayer' gets best value for money. She would have to say that if she were asked to justify the decision. Trouble is no matter how hard I and Google search the County Council site there is NO information about the Cumbrian Academies Programme building tenders or how the process was run except for the 4th November Cabinet meeting where Moira's decision was rubber stamped, as always, by the elected councillors, many of whom are no longer councillors!
I have also been trawling other county council web sites as well as Kier's this weekend, I really should get out more as my wife keeps reminding me, and most other places are much more transparent and not only that they DO NOT lump five building schemes into the one pot.
So in the absence of any information about what has really gone on in Cumbria we are forced to draw our own conclusions. It looks very odd to me that the Cumbrian Academies Programme is radically different to any of the others.
Who was Kier bidding against for example?
Who were the original companies invited to tender?
What is the total sum that the County have been told by the DCSF that they can spend?
This information isn't on the County Council web site.
Why isn't it on the County Council web site?
I understand there are commercial confidentiality issues when two companies are supplying budgets and costings for the same job but what is the harm in the public knowing who these companies are or finding out "broad details" after the bidding process is over?
The competing companies are well aware who they are bidding against.
Know thine enemy, is a key tenet of any bid process but as they are bidding for a public contract paid for by public money the least the public deserve to know is who is actually bidding.
The County Council also hide the true cost of these schemes.
Nowhere on their web site does it state how much money is going to be changing hands from taxpayer to Kier.
Once the bid process is over shouldn't we know how much these schemes are all going to cost as as we are the ones funding them?
"Ah but we do because they have all been reported in the Mail" but no you're wrong.
I haven't figured it out yet exactly how it all works but the rough guide to bagging Academy funding goes like this.
LA is approached by the DCSF to offload some of it's schools onto the Academy programme.
LA then figures out using the 'deprivation indexes' and the 'falling rolls' argument which ones it wants to shift.
LA trawls the list of 'eligible' sponsors and if none are suitable it then sources its own. There is no competition in this part of the game. It's who 'greases the palms' with the best 'ethos & vision' that gets the sponsorship role.
LA and its chosen sponsors then put in a very rough Expression of Interest document that even I could knock up in a few hours full of lies and spun statistics.
DCSF nods wisely at this document as it crosses a desk, unopened and then tells the LA how much money they will be able to spend on building their Academy which has not even being planned, designed, costed etc!
There you go it's literally that easy to get millions pounds out of HM Government as long as you spend it with an 'approved' contractor who is on the government's list of 'approved' contractors who make their money from the taxpayer.
The job of the LA is to get it past any objections, with due diligence of course, and take all the flak that is thrown at these schemes, and there is a lot of flak flying about across the country.
Once the Funding agreement is signed then the 'approved' contractor who has been selected in a secret process by the LA is given the job of building to the price decided by the government.
Once complete it is then handed over lock stock and barrel for the sponsors to play with. The sponsors are almost irrelevant until the funding agreement is signed and then they have TOTAL control of YOUR CHILDRENS education and NO public scrutiny whatsoever.
The pay off for the LA is that they get lots of lovely land and buildings to sell off and put some money back into their coffers so that they can carry on being incompetent and use the cash to get more projects built putting more money in the same constructions companies accounts and so the wheel spins.
They have to offset any grants they receive from disposal income but it is a tiny amount of the money they make on the land sale.
The whole system is very neat and very cynical.
If one project or another gets knocked off by 'unforeseen errors', gross incompetence, the law of the land etc it's no big deal because most of them will sail past all hurdles effortlessly because the public DON'T CARE.
The big construction companies don't lose out as no significant cash changes hands until the 'Final Business Case' drawn up by the Local Authority is signed off by the DCSF Secretary of State who is currently Ed Balls MP. There are even mechanisms employed by the Local Authority to 'minimise their exposure' to this risk.
The DCSF doesn't lose out because it knows that if there are many Local Authorities who need the 'investment' from the land sales no matter how convoluted the route to obtain the land to sell off so it just goes knocking on another door like a snake oil salesman.
The sad and disgusting thing is that these people try to justify this system by saying 'we are doing it for the children'. Total lies.
I have also been trawling other county council web sites as well as Kier's this weekend, I really should get out more as my wife keeps reminding me, and most other places are much more transparent and not only that they DO NOT lump five building schemes into the one pot.
So in the absence of any information about what has really gone on in Cumbria we are forced to draw our own conclusions. It looks very odd to me that the Cumbrian Academies Programme is radically different to any of the others.
Who was Kier bidding against for example?
Who were the original companies invited to tender?
What is the total sum that the County have been told by the DCSF that they can spend?
This information isn't on the County Council web site.
Why isn't it on the County Council web site?
I understand there are commercial confidentiality issues when two companies are supplying budgets and costings for the same job but what is the harm in the public knowing who these companies are or finding out "broad details" after the bidding process is over?
The competing companies are well aware who they are bidding against.
Know thine enemy, is a key tenet of any bid process but as they are bidding for a public contract paid for by public money the least the public deserve to know is who is actually bidding.
The County Council also hide the true cost of these schemes.
Nowhere on their web site does it state how much money is going to be changing hands from taxpayer to Kier.
Once the bid process is over shouldn't we know how much these schemes are all going to cost as as we are the ones funding them?
"Ah but we do because they have all been reported in the Mail" but no you're wrong.
I haven't figured it out yet exactly how it all works but the rough guide to bagging Academy funding goes like this.
LA is approached by the DCSF to offload some of it's schools onto the Academy programme.
LA then figures out using the 'deprivation indexes' and the 'falling rolls' argument which ones it wants to shift.
LA trawls the list of 'eligible' sponsors and if none are suitable it then sources its own. There is no competition in this part of the game. It's who 'greases the palms' with the best 'ethos & vision' that gets the sponsorship role.
LA and its chosen sponsors then put in a very rough Expression of Interest document that even I could knock up in a few hours full of lies and spun statistics.
DCSF nods wisely at this document as it crosses a desk, unopened and then tells the LA how much money they will be able to spend on building their Academy which has not even being planned, designed, costed etc!
There you go it's literally that easy to get millions pounds out of HM Government as long as you spend it with an 'approved' contractor who is on the government's list of 'approved' contractors who make their money from the taxpayer.
The job of the LA is to get it past any objections, with due diligence of course, and take all the flak that is thrown at these schemes, and there is a lot of flak flying about across the country.
Once the Funding agreement is signed then the 'approved' contractor who has been selected in a secret process by the LA is given the job of building to the price decided by the government.
Once complete it is then handed over lock stock and barrel for the sponsors to play with. The sponsors are almost irrelevant until the funding agreement is signed and then they have TOTAL control of YOUR CHILDRENS education and NO public scrutiny whatsoever.
The pay off for the LA is that they get lots of lovely land and buildings to sell off and put some money back into their coffers so that they can carry on being incompetent and use the cash to get more projects built putting more money in the same constructions companies accounts and so the wheel spins.
They have to offset any grants they receive from disposal income but it is a tiny amount of the money they make on the land sale.
The whole system is very neat and very cynical.
If one project or another gets knocked off by 'unforeseen errors', gross incompetence, the law of the land etc it's no big deal because most of them will sail past all hurdles effortlessly because the public DON'T CARE.
The big construction companies don't lose out as no significant cash changes hands until the 'Final Business Case' drawn up by the Local Authority is signed off by the DCSF Secretary of State who is currently Ed Balls MP. There are even mechanisms employed by the Local Authority to 'minimise their exposure' to this risk.
The DCSF doesn't lose out because it knows that if there are many Local Authorities who need the 'investment' from the land sales no matter how convoluted the route to obtain the land to sell off so it just goes knocking on another door like a snake oil salesman.
The sad and disgusting thing is that these people try to justify this system by saying 'we are doing it for the children'. Total lies.
This whole thing stinks!Moira Swann (and ccc) has been determined to push this academy through whatever the cost(and I don't mean financially);the question has to be asked why? what's in it for her?One thing's for sure it's not about what's best for the children of the three schools.She uses bully boy tactics against anyone who dares to question or disagree.She bullied staff(you will be disciplined),parents(refusing to meet to answer any questions or concerns and trying to undermine them),govenors(the chair of one of the schools told me himself that he was told NOT to give out any information.This beggers belief.It is my understanding that it is the governing body that has the responsibility for the running of the school)and of course she tried to bully the children into calling off their protest;they being the only ones(with the exception of a small group of parents) with the "balls" to stand up to her.Oh and I almost forgot she's even had a go at the neighbours surrounding Parkview.She needs reported to the right authorities for harrasment.Finally Moira luv I've heard you've been off ill(with stress)hope it's not trivial you deserve nothing less for all the stress and upset you've caused!
Totally agree with the above. Had hoped that Cumbria's first case of swine flu was the lovely Moira. Mind you there are so many "Pigs in Troughs" at CCC one can only hope!!!!!!!!!!
Where is this woman? She is very quiet all of a sudden. Come on Moira, crawl out from behind your bush and show yourself. Why the hiding if everything is hunky dory? Remember..Silence speaks volumes...